178 



THE FARMER^S MONTHLY VISITOR 



December, 1842. 



we rejoice that our neighlior, Virginia, liss been 

 thus fortunate enough to attract tlie attention of 

 so excellent an agricultural jiopulation to their 

 borders, we may indulge the liope, that others 

 from the same enterprising and industrious quar- 

 ter may not overlook the advantages of climate, 

 soil and position held out h_v good oh! Maryland." 



It will ho perceived lliat this new po|pulalion 

 which has been attracted to the wuni-cint soil ot 

 Virginia, is of that kind vvhicii will iirciiably em- 

 ploy no slave labor. Dutchess county in New 

 York adjoins the State of Mussachiisetts directly 

 on the west, extending its whole width upon the 

 Hudson river. That comity is one ol' the gn/at- 

 est agricultural profit and production in the Union 

 in proportion to its extent ; and farmers who have 

 there learned their trade will be very likely to 

 thrive elsewhere. We would not be at all sur- 

 prised if this company of farmers of old Dutch- 

 ess had been drawn to the county of Fairfax by 

 the publicity in several agricultural newspapers 

 which has been given to Commodore Jones' suc- 

 cessful experiment in the same county. 



We have fully satisfied ourselves of the fact, 

 that there are many thousands of acres of land 

 in the States along the Atlantic seaboard now ly- 

 ing useless that may be pmchased and cultivated 

 to better advantage and i)rofit than the best lands 

 oflered for sale at the West. The Dutchess coun- 

 ty farmers who have taken up land for improve- 

 ment in Fairfax county, Virginia, if th«ir history 

 for the ne.vt twenty years could be written, will 

 turn out to be more uniformly succcssfid than an 

 equal number with the same means who have 

 removed to the far West. The new western lands 

 may be more easily brought into cultivation ; but 

 Commodore Jones has demonstrated, and the 

 emigrants from Dutchess county will prove thai 

 the best and most profitable investment of all will 

 be the judicious expenditure and labor bestowed 

 in reclaiming the worn-out lands of Fairfax coim- 

 ty, Virginia. 



The area of the county of Fairfax, according 

 to the view upon the map, is not larger than one 

 of the largest townships of New Hampshire or 

 Massachusetts: it lies southerly and south-west- 

 erly along the line of the District of Colund)ia, 

 and no part of it, we should think, is over fifteen 

 miles distant from the capitol and not over ten 

 miles from either Alexandria or Georgetown. — 

 We are net sure, lint we believe IMoiiiit Vernon 

 is within the limits of this county at its south- 

 east extremity. The extensive groiunis which 

 formerly constituted the I'mi )ii» of the illustrious 

 George Washington ai e a liiir s.unple of the larg- 

 er portion of the coimty. The Washington 

 farms, in the first settlement of the country, were 

 probably as productive as the most fertile lands 

 of the West : so we believe was the greater por- 

 tion of Fairfax county — and so likewise was the 

 ground on which the Federal city is located. We 

 believe the estates of Washington were |)roduc- 

 tive as long as he lived — they were so managed 

 in his life-time a? to furnish an income even with 

 slave labor while cultivated in the absence of the 

 owner. Of late years they hjive not- produced 

 enough fairly to afford food to the very few who 

 have contrived to get a bare subsistence about 

 the premises. The fishing i)rivilege on the Po- 

 tomac connected with Mount Vernon is the only 

 part of that extensive propei ty worth any thing 

 to thtt ouners. Tliis gives an annual income 

 from rent of a few hundred dollars. 



The soil of this country is much of it a red 

 ferruginous clay. From this red clay bricks are 

 made all about the city of Washington, the ma- 

 terial for which is found nfteu directly upon the 

 surface. Sometimes the clay is mixed with sand 

 and gravel. Much of the subsoil, we do not 

 doubt, is of the nature of marl. The land on 

 which the city is built has been graded so as to 

 bring the streets and side ways either to a level 

 or to inclined planes: hills are dug down and 

 hollows or valleys are elevated. Within the last 

 ten or twelve years the groimds have been beau- 

 tifully inq)roved about the public offices and the 

 President's house, and especially in the front and 

 rear of the Capitol. A gardener at the head of a 

 gang of workmen is constantly employed by the 

 government on these public grounds : a great 

 variety of trees and shrubbery, tastefully arranged 

 and carefully pruned, contrihntes to beautify the 

 scene. In their season, beautiful flowers scent 

 the evening and morning breeze with the most 

 delicious fragrance and charm the eye with all 



the brilliant tinges of the various colors. In the 

 yard chructly tiotuing the Capitol is a reservoir 

 or basin coustriicted of tree-stone cemented tc- 

 gctliiT, into wliii-h the water is brougbt, and from 

 whicli it cmer;;es, giving a supply constaiuly for 

 the Capitol. In this reservoir as well as in an- 

 other in the rear, a variety of gold and sun fishes 

 are seen sporting. 



The yard on the east front of the Capitol con- 

 tains several acres : over a great portion of it the 

 ground has been excavated to the depth of four 

 to six feet and the surface carried away. The 

 entire smface is what was originally subsoil. — 

 This, after a few seasons of exposure, has been 

 liroiighl into crass. }n the first part of Septem- 

 ber the gardi'iier and his men were gathering 

 from it the third crop of hay for the season. On 

 inquiry we found that the yard had produced 

 durins the last summer over three tons of hay 

 to the acre ; there had been no manure put upon 

 the ground for two years. No very great amount 

 of manure had been put upon the land at any 

 time. This land in its original state was no bet- 

 ter than much of the ground in the vicinity. Af- 

 ter the upper surface was carried away the clay- 

 ey subsoil had been stirred deep and had become 

 well pulverized from ex|>osure to the atmosphere ; 

 and to this circumstance, rather than to the quan- 

 tity of the manme, did we attribute its extraor- 

 dinary fertility. 



The fat and luqipy landlord of Washington, 

 Mr. Jesse Brown, has not 8atisfie<i himself sim- 

 ply with the improvements of his garden on the 

 grounds belonging to the Government. He has 

 within the last fifteen years (after Mr. Gadsby 

 w ill) the aid of the wealth of George Calvert, a 

 descendant of the lords' proprietors of Mary- 

 land, had built a hotel covering over an acre) 

 stretched out his own premises tionting on two 

 streets, and made his fslablishinent nearly as ca- 

 pacious and splendid as that of his neighbor. — 

 RfTecting a long loan at five percent, interest, he 

 made a most capital investment by extending his 

 buildings and acconimmhitions which are all ta- 

 ken up in the busy season of the sitting of Con- 

 gress ; and to his other income is add^d the rent 

 of some three or four stores fronting on the Penn- 

 sylvaiua Avenue — the same rooms from which in 

 times gone by Thomas Paine was wont to ad- 

 dress the people after his return liom Revolution- 

 ary France, and in which at a later period Henry 

 Clay, and William Pinkney, and subsequently 

 nushrod Washington and John Marshall spent 

 their winters while on pid)lic duty. 



To his other enterprises, Mr. Brown has late- 

 ly added, as a matter of income and profit, a 

 firm of about seventy acres, situated about two 

 miles north of Pennsylvania Avenue, near Co- 

 lumbia College. We had no time to visit this 

 fu"ui ; hut from the quantity of hay which ap- 

 peared in the numerous stacks at a distance as 

 well as from the general appearance, we would 

 venture an opinion that Mr. Brown now gets 

 more prodin-e from seventy acres than all the 

 produce gathered within the iiounds of the city 

 at the distance of three miles from the capitol 

 twenty-five years ago. 



In the neighborhood of Mr. Brown's farm there 

 is another, the property of Mr. W. J. Stone, con- 

 sisting of eighty acres. This farm is at the dis- 

 tance north of about one mile and a half from 

 the Centre market. He h.^s here converted the 

 poor worn out land into Buch a state as woidd 

 leave no doulit that its quality was first rate. Mr. 

 Slone commenced in the city without iiroperty. 

 His trade is that of an engraver. The card of 

 many a member of Congress and other public 

 ftinctiouary has been by this gentleman etched 

 in a style more beautiful than could be drawn in 

 any baud-writing. Mr. Stone has always been 

 ready to perform any jobs of copperplate engra- 

 ving that iidght he wanted in the ()ublic offices ; 

 and, making no ado about if, he has slipped into 

 a very ample fortune. His horticulture and ag- 

 riculture do him great credit. They have fur- 

 inshed an example which many gentlemen in the 

 District are anxious to follow. 



Another experimental farmer of the city is 

 Jonathan Seaver, Esq., Chief Clerk in the Sec- 

 ond Comptroller's Office. He purchased two 

 years ago twenty-eight acres of laud one mile 

 north of the Capitol. In the use of compost ma- 

 nure he is rapidly advancing the production of 

 this groimd. Lime is abundant in all the south- 

 ern coiuitry. With tlia wio of lime merely, Mr. 



Seaver has much advanced his hay crops, ll 

 seems to be his highest ambition to make "two 

 sjiears of grass grow where but one grew before." 

 He is the son of the Hon. Khenezer Seaver, a 

 member of Congress who voted lor the declara- 

 tion of war with Great Britain — himself an ex- 

 cellent liunier, and now at a verv advanced age. 

 Onrohl liiend, Amos Kpnuall, we likewise 

 visited upon I, is liuin one n.ile mhI a half north- 



abniit one hundred aeics. uliirli he piu'cliased at 

 the price of nearly m^e imnilred dollars the acre 

 — a price iinich too liii:li, e(in>iil.i iiig the quality 

 of the land and the less |,i in' lur equally good if 

 not better land at no vciy great distance. Feeble 

 in health ,-is he had been for inatvy years, we 

 found Mr. K. tng;aing away at labor in his field. 

 With the exception of some twenty acres, this 

 farm was covered with a grouili of timber and 

 wood. Mr. K's team of hcM>es was engai:ed in 

 taking wood to the eiiy, leininini: "ith a loud of 

 lime for the renovation of his kind. He had a 

 noble corn-field of several acres where no other 

 manure than a small qitantity of lime had been 

 used. 



When we lived at Washington the last man 

 we had supposed woidd become a farmer on that 

 ground was the editor of the Globe. More feeble 

 in health ai)parently than the late Post Master 

 General, he had none of the advantages of the 

 son of a New England farmer. He was fl'oni 

 gallant Kentucky, whose men and women, de- 

 scended from the ancient Virginia line, were nei- 

 ther taught nor bound by necessity to labor. — 

 That State, yielding almost spontaneously from its 

 rich soil food for man and beast, was but a poor 

 place to qualify a clo.se calcidating farmer. Yet 

 seldom have we seen more science and a better 

 t.iste than are exhibited in the garden of Mr. 

 Blair at the place of his residence near the Pres- 

 ident's house. To the management of the lady 

 tnucli of the credit is due for this very useftil and 

 beaiitiftil establishment. The ever blooming roses 

 were among the evidences of Mr. Blair's skill in 

 horticulture. In a few miiuites he would change 

 entirely the character of the bush or tree before 

 him and prepare it either for the production of 

 more beautiful flowers or better fruit. A species 

 of elegant rose blooiiung nearly the year round 

 was nuiltiplicd on the stocky of the ordinary 

 rose ad infininiluni. The sniall space of less 

 than half uii acre was but a sample of what 

 the soil of Washington might be made to 

 produce. Peach treesscarcely half adozen years 

 of age heinling under the load of frmt — grape 

 vines, on which the hunches hang in rich clus- 

 ters — the fdheit and the lig tree with ripening 

 fruit .against the walls— were among the oriia- 

 mentai parts of a garden containing every kind 

 of vegetable useful for the table. Tvvo or more 

 crops succeeded each other on the gromid in a 

 year: as neat as a well arranged parlor, more 

 beautiful than a dressed church at Christufhs, was 

 the retiring place of the political editor in the 

 heat of the day. Among the cmiosities of this 

 garden was a living willow taken ft'om the tomb 

 of Napoleon at St. Helena by a sailor son of Mr. 

 Blair who was a midshipman in the United States 

 service in the expedition to the South Seas un- 

 der Lieut. Wilkes, and to whose good conduct 

 and bearing while engaged in a difficult service 

 near the mouth of Columbia river his superior 

 officers bear testimony. 



Mr. Blair's success in the garden has made 

 him ambitious to become a fiirmer. According 

 to the fashion in Kentucky, he had been in the 

 habit of exercising on bor-seback : in an excur- 

 sion over the bad roads which are so comujon 

 about Washington, with his wife, she was thrown 

 from the saddle and her horse gaily refused to be 

 caught. Mr. B. rode in pursuit up the Rockvillo 

 turnpike to the border of Montgomery county, 

 .Maryland, where fiome persons " heading" the 

 animal, he took to the woods. Mr. B. discovered 

 a beautiftd spring of water bursting out of the 

 ground over a lime stone rock. Pursuing the 

 stream he found the valley down which the water 

 run towards the Rock creek coimected with other 

 valleys further down forming lulls or mounds 

 around which several streams run in concentric 

 circles. This place, five miles out of the city, 

 he more than once visited. _ The clear spring of 

 water, which gushed out of the lock, he named 

 the " Silver Spring." An extensive tract of land 

 around this spring belonged to a branch of the 



